“Flag” by Jasper Johns, 1954-55
Encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on plywood
When it comes to the Pop Art and Dada movements of the first half of last century, you would be excused if the meaning did not immediately pop out at you. Why are Campbell’s soup cans, the word love, or a painting of a comic book scene viewed as great art? There is really no easy answer to that as the response that a person has to art is entirely subjective. What does transcend everything is that sometimes the greatest art is the simplest in execution.
For all of the posturing and pretentiousness that can accompany a description of Andy Warhol or Man Ray’s works (and believe me, I was an art student and heard my fair share of them), the reality is people responded to them because the artists were able to do something that looked easy to do from a technical standpoint but was really much more complex.
A perfect example of this is “Flag” by Jasper Johns. If someone told you that for their next painting they were going to paint the U.S. flag and that was it, you would think that was one of the most uninspired and unoriginal ideas this side of doing a paint-by-numbers piece. Yet “Flag” seems to stop you in your tracks. It is unpolished, it is not smooth. It looks dirty and almost bruised in a way. When looked at from this perspective the symbolism and perspective is limitless.
Is it a commentary on America’s flaws? Or, should it be looked at like a still life piece and see it as simply the artist’s point of view? By choosing the American flag Johns essentially asks you to look at something you already know yet do not always see. It is this thinking that makes an iron that houses nails along its face and sheets of pink cow wallpaper such an interesting tack on artistic perspective. Is it art or is it a glorified readymade? What does the piece say about the artist?
In a strange way, the Pop Art movement could be seen as an excellent representation of America, its roots, and how others perceive us. Just as it is debatable as to whether Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans are art, it is just as debatable to wonder if America is itself an original country or a mass-marketed idea, logo, or slogan. America was comprised primarily of British and French working and upper classes, African and Caribbean slaves, and the native Indian tribes that were scattered about. What does it mean to be American? It is an answer with a veritable spectrum of answers but, at the end of the day, the idea of “being American” was a cultivated ideal, something that transcended the actual country.
Andy Warhol made a soup can label a piece of art, the can of soup became something that actually transcended soup. You would be hard-pressed to find anything more American that that—the idea that soup is a work of art. Along those lines, it makes complete sense why Jasper Johns’ painting of a U.S. flag should be seen as something more than just a flag. When people coming to America see our flag they see hope or a new start, it makes sense that it should be re-done so that people who have already made America their home can see the flag from a different perspective. It is this duality that makes “Flag” timeless because it can represent two seemingly opposed viewpoints at once—just like our country.